Quinn wasn't exactly sure what she expected when Hal popped in to the Library to ask her to come to Halschius, but this wasn't it.

  They weren't in the massive dome that housed the strange mind reading projectors. This wasn't about figuring out what they knew, what hints they might give the Library and allies to help track down the saboteurs and break the hold they still had.

  No, this was about figuring out just how Kajaro's magic worked.

  She wasn't expecting the sheer white room. And once she realized it was this bright white, she certainly wasn't expecting the cracks of lava that ran along the walls and floors, like veins bleeding beneath the floor. Heat didn't permeate the room. In fact, it was quite cool.

  Which was necessary considering Kajaro's ice prison was balanced right in the middle. He looked just the same as he had when she originally sealed him in it. His forked tongue ever so slightly out of his mouth, his snake-eyes narrowed into almost slits, and his hands positioned as if they were just about to cast.

  She had to tamp down on the instinct to throw a damned fireball at his face.

  Aradie nipped her ear, having chosen to come this time since so much had gone wrong the last time they visited. It seemed the owl wasn't leaving anything to chance and had spent the bulk of the time getting to Kajaro's room, glaring at Hal.

  Malakai stood off to the side, his hand on his sword, at ease, and yet, given their history visiting Hal, constantly aware. Eric hovered next to the satyr, squinting at Kajaro as if that might somehow grant them some answers.

  And Quinn wasn't entirely sure what she should be doing. "Going to need some direction here, Uncle Hal." She said, trying to get some sort of input here. Kajaro was well preserved, from scanning him she knew he was back at full health, but the prison it seemed was more robust than the inital layer she'd created.

  Hal hadn't answered yet so Quinn kept going. "Look - it's obvious you made some improvements to my makeshift ice prison for him. Are you sure you can handle him if he breaks out. He's back at full health and everything right now." She couldn't keep that sense of worry from her voice.

  Uncle Hal finally looked down at her, as if her words were all just registering now. That's when she realized he'd been doing much the same as Lynx always was. Communicating with integral parts of his stronghold, probably organizing troops and generals and whatever it was one did when at war with a bunch of siblings.

  He flashed her a smile. "Sorry. Still getting some things sorted on the side. We can handle him. This room has several failsafes that guarantee he won't be a problem even if he were to break loose. I'm not risking a repeat of last time. When I can't be guaranteed of what might happen, I have to plan for every eventuality."

  Quinn nodded. "So, what am I here for?"

  "Aw, little egg, you wound me. You're not just here for the pleasure of my company?" His eyes twinkled merrily, insomuch as blood red eyes could.

  "I promise, when everything is solved, I'll visit for no other reason than to have you make me a hot cocoa."

  Hal threw his head back and laughed. "Excellent." His eyes narrowed and his expression grew serious. "Now we've got that out of the way...We've been analyzing his blood, his DNA, his sequential magic aggregate..."

  Quinn cleared her throat. "His sequential magic what now?"

  "Sequential Magic Aggregate..." He squinted down at her, a measure of shock in his features. "What have they been teaching you?"

  "Don't make it worse, just tell me."

  "Affinities. Technically that's the official language when referring to affinities - but it goes a little deeper than that."

  Quinn crosses her arms. "Then just call it affinities next time."

  "Sure. Next time we have another psychopathic, resurrecting snake... I'll make sure to call it that."

  The Librarian laughed, and she heard the sound echoed in Malakai and Eric behind her.

  Hal looked like he was the one counting to five this time. "As I was saying. We've checked everything. And there are several notable areas in his genetic makeup that don't correspond to what... well, to what he is."

  "As in species wise?" Quinn asked.

  "That, and the type of mage he's supposed to be. He appears to have a lot more affinities than registered and on top of that a lot of them are mind based. Frankly, before he placed the mind bomb with you, as far as anyone else was aware, including any of the system that reaches us, he didn't have any mind affinities. No mind reading, no mind manipulation, no mental affinities at all."

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  "Well, I hate to break it to you. But he definitely does now." Quinn watched him, frozen in his stasis. No movement, nothing to even intimate he was alive except the monitoring station several feet away from him and its infinitely slow beep that showed the slow heartrate of a cold blooded frozen being.

  The longer she watched him, the more she realized that Hal probably wasn't going to say anything until she asked more questions. Or else he was preoccupied. She took a risk on it being the former."Fine. What do you need me to do?"

  Hal didn't answer for a while, almost long enough for Quinn to wonder if he'd heard her in the first place. When she was about to ask the question again, he finally spoke.

  "You've been working closely with Milaro for a long while now. I realize you've hit the advanced level in a few of your mental magic capacities. When it comes to shielding and controling a dreamstate domain, Milaro has nothing but praise for you. I believe..." he looked down at her, a rather fond smile on his face, "That this is the one magical area you are no longer quite an egg in."

  Quinn fought down a blush. She didn't think Hal metered out praise very often, and it made her proud to have made the cut. Despite him insisting on still calling her an egg. "Go on."

  Hal chuckled. "Very well. We believe, that if we set up our system in the right way, which we've been experimenting with, you should be able to either enter his, or pull him into your domain and figure out just what it is that's not only going on with him, but going on with his resurrection ability. The only way we can stop him from using it, is to disconnect it."

  A shiver of dread ran down her spine. Quinn forced herself to take nice long breaths. Deep and in for four, hold for two, out for four. Rinse and repeat. She had to do this while watching him, remembering how much pain he'd put not only her through, but Escadril and Malakai. And those were just the people Quinn knew.

  She'd be willing to bet there were hundreds of thousands or millions of people's lives he'd affected with more and more adding to the list daily. "Give me a bit." She cast around to try and find somewhere to sit, her gaze falling on a set of chairs over in one of the corners behind her.

  Sitting down, she closed her eyes with her legs crossed and concentrated. She needed to center herself, and to trace through the information she'd absorbed. Something was hinting at the back of her mind, calling to her, as if she should know the best solution for this -- right on the tip of her tongue.

  Quinn sorted through all of her mind information specifically seeking out the ability to traverse someone elses thoughts without causing them damage. Even with accelerated processing it still took her a ridiculous amount of time to find what she was looking for. It made her realize just how many mental affinity related abilities she'd absorbed, and already possessed. Hell... even a lot of them she'd already used, whether intentionally or not.

  And there it was.

  Cogulatio

  Thought walking - is an ancient art form that requires an even temper, finesse, and respect of inner sanctums. Winding oneself though the thoughts of others needs to be done with intrinsic levels of trust, and consent, lest the mind be hostile. While pure force can overwhelm a mind and retrieve the necessary information, it can permanently damage it. Information retrieved in such a hostile way is also not always trustworthy.

  Quinn frowned, pulling herself back out of her head. She knew only a few minutes had passed, but for a second she had information overwhelm for the amount she'd sifted through to find Cogulatio. It wasn't the perfect solution, but it was the only realistic option for her.

  She frowned, unsure if she should risk it. From all the information she had, it didn't appear to be dangerous for herself, just for either Kajaro or the information itself. She highly doubted he'd hand over information willingly.

  Malakai had moved closer to her. She didn't even have to open her eyes to know that.

  "Any luck?" He asked softly.

  Maybe he'd noticed the tension enter her body again once she'd got done. Perhaps he'd just been hanging around her too much for the last six months. Whatever it was, Quinn was glad to have him with her.

  "Sort of. I have a possibility." She chewed on her bottom lip for a couple of seconds, letting the couple of sharp stabs to her lip give her a sense of clarity to think over the situation.

  "Is it a risky possibility, or a dangerous one?" he asked.

  Quinn knew why he asked. Dangerous was bad for the Librarian. Danger meant she could possibly still perish considering she wasn't fully aged yet and would probably still die. How the hell did the other cosmicisodracus survive out there in the wild, put there by chaos to float around while it created worlds?

  She shook her head and pushed herself to standing, stretching for a moment, before moving toward Hal and beckoning Malakai to come with her. Flashing a grin at Mal, she shrugged. "You know, I'm not sure. I think it's more risky for the information we'll get, depending on how I approach this."

  Hal turned to her, eyebrow raised. "And just how do you suggest we approach this?"

  But she ignored his question. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait for Milaro?"

  The king of Halschius shook his head. "No, he's busy right now doing his actual job -- which is just another thing we'll need in the long run. Also, Kajaro has a deeper connection to you. He might be willing to part with information to you that he wouldn't give anyone else."

  She nodded slowly. It made sense, even if it did make her feel slightly vulnerable. "I get it. The only thing with this is, I'm going to need his permission, or else any information we get could be corrupted."

  Hal frowned at her. "Permission? As in you need to ask him if it's okay to go prodding around in his head for secrets?"

  "Technically. There's an actual incantation that if he agrees to it, he'll have to allow me to find what I find once I invoke it. If he declines it however... everything, including my connetion with him in there, is fair game."

  "Sounds a bit too risky, don't you think?" Eric piped up, concern furrowed his brow.

  Hal seemed lost in thought for a second. "It sounds riskier than I anticipated." But after a moment he continued. "How about, if he doesn't agree, if his consciousness tries to bait you or otherwise leads you to believe it could be yet another one of his traps... we'll wait for Milaro before going in?"

  Quinn mulls that over. "Fine. Just let me make some preparations."

  She didn't tell them that she had to calm her nerves before she did anything. Quinn couldn't tell if it was fear, or anticipation. She hoped it was a healthy dose of both.

  mostly under control.

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